The Agents of SOUL
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: Soul Reapers are beings that maintain balance, this was never truer than when Ichigo became one of them. Now, several years after the holy war has taken place. Ichigo's back in the spotlight again. And not in a good way. She's captured the attention of the Avengers, and HYDRA.
1. Chapter 1

They'd had their eyes on her for a while now.

Not for any terrible reason or anything, but because she always seemed to be around. Sure, they were all fairly certain that she was simply passing by every time that they bumped into her. But there was simply something about her that commanded their undivided attention. Even if they didn't quite know what it was.

The first time that any of them had met her was about a month after they had formed the Avengers and were attending one of Tony's gala's. Some fund raiser for orphans or something that Tony felt was a worthy enough cause for them all to put some face time in for.

It was late in the evening and the party had been in full swing when Nat had first seen her. Standing in one of the doors across the room in a leather jacket, a cream colored shirt and jeans.

Compared to everyone wearing suits and formal dresses, diamonds and gold- she was so unbelievably plain. So much so that several people that also happened to see her, sneered at her. Still...she didn't seem the least bit bothered by anyone's attitude nor by the fact that security and Tony were called to 'take out the trash'.

Happy and Tony walked over to her and cornered her over by the buffet table and after a few exchanged words, and seeing her pull a large roll of crisp thousand dollar bills from her jacket pocket and hand it to Tony. He walked away shaking his head after telling Happy that she could stay.

Once that was taken care of he returned to where he had been before with the wad of cash in his hands, carefully counting it out and frowned a little more each time the number of bills went up. By the time he had returned to Pepper's side, he slapped the bills down on the bar counter and looked at her with a slightly confused and troubled expression as she asked, "Who is she?"

He lifted his dark eyes to her face and simply said, "Someone who decided that crashing the party would be worth it if she could donate to the cause." Pepper cast a glance towards the person in question for a moment and caught the young woman's eye just long enough for her to smile at her and then quickly look away as she heard Tony say, "This has to be close to fifty thousand dollars. How the_ hell_ did a girl her age manage to scrape together this much money?"

"You don't think that she stole it do you?" Pepper asked worriedly. As Steve, Nat, and Clint wandered over to see what was going on.

"And come to an Avenger's sponsored party?" Tony asked in an incredulous tone. "That would be incredibly stupid of her. Especially since it would get her caught."

"Is she going to cause any trouble?" Steve asked as he stared at the pile of money and then glanced across the room where the young woman had been joined by another young lady in a red knee length cocktail dress.

The two were chatting like old friends, laughing and carrying on until the smaller woman decided that she wanted to dance and grabbed the taller one's hand and dragged her out onto the dance floor as Tony muttered out an affirmative. Cause, yeah. The woman was totally trouble.

Nat and Pepper both tapped Tony at the exact moment to get his attention and then pointed to the pair. Tony turned just in time for the two to waltz by them as if they had done so a million times before.

They looked...oddly good together.

The tall, strawberry blond slightly towering over the shorter, dark haired woman. Hell, even their clothing seemed to compliment each other. Despite the fact that the blond was dressed in semi male clothing, and the petite woman was dressed in formal wear.

The two made another pass by them, both gliding expertly like professional dances. Their movement lacking any awkwardness for two people that had just run into each other and likely didn't know one another any, would have.

The dance ended and another, faster one began as the two women started to remove themselves from the dance floor someone else- a tall blond man with his hair slicked back- Kisuke something or another. An inventor of some sort from Japan, Tony realized, grabbed the strawberry blond and started to drag her around the dance floor.

The startled woman took it with about as much grace as could be expected for someone who had been grabbed so suddenly and only managed to step on the grinning man's toes, _twice_. Before she seemed to get her bearings a little bit and the two danced as well as the woman had with her previous dance partner.

They certainly put on one hell of a show. _Everyone's_ attention were on them. Causing quite a few people to have their feet stepped on and several couples to even trip a little bit.

By the time the dance ended, Kisuke bowed to the woman and then politely led her over to the bar and quickly ordered three drinks as the young woman's previous dance partner came over to sit and join them.

"This is certainly a surprise," Kisuke said happily as Rukia grabbed the stool next to Ichigo's and settled herself down in it and laid her dinner plate, and small red clutch on the bar. "None of us really expected to hear from you, much less see you again once you left Japan. How have you been?"

Ichigo shrugged her shoulders a little bit and muttered a polite, "Same old, same old. I got a job as a musician and a part time job as a novelist."

"Sounds...more like Orihime's thing than yours."

"I know," Ichigo said with a small chuckle. "I thought I'd wind up in a fight club or being a mercenary myself."

"That would have been more you're speed." Kisuke laughed as Rukia reached out and absently pushed her dinner plate towards her friend. Indicating that she wanted her to try and eat.

"You're thinner than I remember. Have you been taking care of yourself?"

"I'm fine Rukia. I have some trouble holding food down sometimes, and need medicine for it. That's all."

"Are the old injuries finally-" Ruika started to ask if some of Ichigo's old stomach wounds were finally catching up to her, but one look from her friend indicated that she didn't want to talk about it. So she fell silent.

The three of them sat there for several uncomfortable moments before Ichigo reached over and picked up an orange cranberry and white chocolate chip cookie off of her plate and took a bite of it.

"Damn, that's good."

"I know right! Doesn't it sort of remind you of some of Orihime's?"

They all laughed as they recalled some of the weird food combo's that they're friend used to come up with before she married. Some of the stuff that Orihime had made was classified as poison and unfit for human consumption.

* * *

"What are they talking about?" Nat asked Clint, causing everyone to look at the man.

"Someone named Orihime."

"What were they talking about before?"

"Oh, the uh...strawberry blond looks thinner to the young lady in red. Miss...uhhh…"

"For fuck's sake Barton, call her berry or something!" Tony growled at him.

"Okay, Miss Berry- god that sounds terrible-" Clint muttered before continuing on. "She apparently has some issues with holding food down sometimes. Her friend in red asked if it had something to do with her old injuries-" Everyone stayed quiet for a heartbeat upon hearing this as he then said, "She said that she has medicine that she takes for it. And then she picked up a cookie and said, 'damn that's good'."

"Ohhh."

"Has anyone said her name?"

"No, but her friend in the red dress is named Rukia."

"Rukia?" Tony echoed as he searched his memory for a moment before muttering, "Oh, the Kuchiki family heiress. _Shit!_ How do they even know each other? That woman was never introduced to anyone outside of immediate family and very, very close friends until a year or so ago."

"Well...maybe that's who the mystery woman is." Pepper said.

"Which one?"

Nat shrugged her shoulders and then told him that he should go over and introduce himself since he was the host of the gala. It's not like it would look suspicious. So Tony stood up and straightened his suit out and held a hand out to Nat and waited patiently for her to take his hand before walking over to introduce himself.


	2. Chapter 2

Ichigo was enjoying another cookie while listening to Rukia and Kisuke both talk about a little bit of this and that when she sensed someone coming up behind her, and squeezed her glass of long island ice tea so hard in her hand that it shattered in her grasp. Seconds before she started to turn to confront whoever was behind her and quickly had her hands grabbed by both Kisuke and Rukia who wore identical looks of concern on both of their faces.

"Mr. Stark!" Kisuke chirped as he felt her try and jerk her hand free and had to tighten his grip on her so much that it actually hurt. "Good evening."

Tony and Nat eyed the young woman warily for a moment but went along with the opening that the man had provided for them.

"Good evening to you too. My friend Nat and I were just coming over to introduce ourselves-" Tony said with a practiced smile when Ichigo suddenly hissed out in a dark tone,

"Kisuke if you don't let go of my fucking hand so I can go and wash it, I'm going to beat you black and blue."

Kisuke released her so quickly that it made Tony's head spin as he watched her slowly get up from her seat cradling her hand, which was bleeding in her other hand.

"Oh, you're hurt." Nat muttered as she moved into the younger woman's personal space to examine her hand. "Did the glass get you when it shattered?" She asked as the woman let her take hold of her hand and gently probe her split open and bloody palm with her fingertips.

'Berry' as Tony had dubbed her, didn't yelp or make even the slightest sound as Nat touched a particularly tender area that she just knew had to hurt like a bitch because she could see a semi large piece of glass embedded in her hand, partially underneath the skin.

"Ohh, that has to hurt like a bitch." She said in a slightly sympathetic tone. "Tony, her hand has been cut to ribbons." Nat said as she turned back to him. Tony stopped speaking and peeked over her shoulder at the woman's hand and inwardly cringed.

"Damn," He muttered before casting her an odd look before then saying, "Come on, we'll patch you up and... I'll apologize profusely in the hopes that you won't sue me for this." He said it in a half joking manner despite being totally serious. This was not a part of his plan to find out who she was, but whatever.

He'd work with what he got.

"You don't have to-" Berry started to say but Tony cut her off with a hand gesture and let Nat start to pull her away from her two friends as Tony chided her,

"Of course I have too. You hurt yourself on a glass that I bought. No worries though, we'll get you fixed up in no time."

"I-I'd really rather just go home and bleed."

"Don't be silly," Nat crooned at her. "We'll take care of you." She assured her with a well practiced non-threatening smile.

Berry turned her head to look at her friend's almost pleadingly causing the two to stand up and decide to follow them. Which was also totally _not_ in the plan if Tony was going to ask her stuff. But he figured that if they couldn't pump her for info then maybe they could get it from her friends.

Guiding her back towards where the others were all waiting, Steve was the first one to take notice of her bloody hand and slammed his glass of bourbon down as he demanded, "What the hell happened?" His tone was one half concerned and one half pissed.

Either way, Tony _cringed_ the moment that he heard it.

Moving over to grasp the woman's wrist gently in his large hand, he took a moment to look over her palm and glared at Tony and Nat both. Because it was one thing to be curious about someone and want to know stuff- it was another entirely to _injure_ said person.

Berry scowled at him for the sudden invasion of her personal space, but otherwise didn't react at all to the big oaf. Which was surprising given the barely leashed violence crawling underneath Steve's carefully cultivated façade.

"I'm no expert but you may need to go to the hospital for stitches." He said after a few moments or so of silence. Some of the slivers of glass embedded in her hand were down deep underneath the skin and her palm was at least cut almost to the bone in two places.

And that shit had to hurt pretty bad, so Steve was more than a little bit started/surprised when she didn't react to having him probe the edges of some of the deeper cuts. Especially when he accidentally forced a couple of shlivers of glass deeper into at least one of the wounds.

"_Oh-_ uh...sorry!" He said as he abruptly released her wrist and automatically got cuffed on the back of the head by Nat as she spat out,

"Oaf!" Along with a few foul choice words in Russian.

Steve merely rubbed the back of his head where her hand had connected with his skull and moved as far away from the angry woman as fast as he could without tripping over his own feet as Pepper walked over and said,

"I've called for Happy to bring the car around. He'll be out front in two minutes tops."

"Thanks Pepper. We'd really appreciate that." Tony said before turning to Berry and asking, "Do you have everything that you brought with you?" He looked her over for a second, for a moment forgetting that she hadn't walked in with an invite and certainly wasn't dressed to be at his gala and mentally sighed.

If not for how curious he was about where she had gotten the money that she'd given to him as well as how she seemed to manage to have two very distinct people attach themselves to her- he wouldn't be so bothered by anything. But due to his slightly suspicious nature, he was.

"Yes, she has everything," Miss Kuchiki answered for her as Kisuke gave her a quick hug and told her that he'd follow them to the hospital before meandering off. "I hope that you don't mind, but I'll be riding with her."

"Uh, yeah sure. Okay." Tony said, uncertain about how her presence would help him pump the woman for info. But he wasn't about to argue with her since it would look more suspicious for him to deny her.

Rukia just smiled sweetly at him and then walked over to save Ichigo from the red headed woman before she punched her in the throat.

"Excuse me Miss," Rukia said once she reached the two and none too politely placed herself between Ichigo and the woman. "But I'll take things from here."

Nat regarded her curiously and then nodded her head and moved away to let her take over dealing with Berry. Once she was far enough away where she could pretend that she wasn't spying on them, she watched the shorter woman dig out a pill bottle from her clutch and pour out several pills in her palm and then hand them to the taller woman.

"Here, you're starting to look a little bit anxious. So those should help you relax some." Rukia said as she handed Ichigo the anxiety meds that she carried on her as a precaution. Ichigo didn't question what the pills were or what they did since she trusted her enough not to try and poison her, and simply tossed the pills back and swallowed them dry.

"What did you just give her?" Clint demanded suspiciously as the taller woman tossed back the pills that her friend had handed to her.

"Anxiety meds," Rukia replied easily before reaching up to ruffle the taller woman's hair affectionately as she then said, "Ichi doesn't do so well with hospitals and is prone to panic attacks and such."

"O-Oh. Uh...sorry."

"It's fine. I've had people jump down my throat for doing things like this before. But what people don't realize is that Ichi needs them, _badly_."

"She have PTSD or something?" Clint asked with a frown as he regarded the young woman with a little bit of curiosity and skepticism.

"Among other things." Rukia said as she slowly dropped her arm back to her side.

"She seems awfully young to have-" Clint was cut off by the sound of Tony clapping his hands to get everyone's attention before then announcing that Happy was out front with the car. Any one leaving was to get in it, and not complain any since they would be going by the hospital. And would likely stay there for a little while.


	3. Chapter 3

Once in the limo, Tony waited a total of barely five minutes since they pulled away from the curb before asking, "So...how do you ladies know each other?" He looked from the mystery woman to the Kuchiki heir curiously as Ms. Kuchiki was carefully tying a piece of her torn dress around her friend's hand.

They ignored his question as Rukia asked softly enough to almost not be overheard by Tony, "Are you still on blood thinners?" But not nearly enough not to be overheard by Clint or Steve. Both of whom suddenly looked very, very alarmed at the prospect of the strawberry blond possibly bleeding out before they could get her to the hospital.

"Not really. I mean, I still take them, but not...everyday."

"Really?" Rukia asked, her voice carrying a hopeful tone to it.

"Yeah."

_"Good,"_ Rukia said with a small smile as she tied off the make shift bandage. "It's about time things started to get back to semi normal, huh." Ichigo didn't make another sound. She was a little bit too busy picturing Byakuya trying to murder her for letting Rukia rip up her nice red dress for tonight's party.

Hearing someone clear their throat, loudly and somewhat rudely the two women looked back across the vehicle to the others riding with them as Mr. Stark pasted on a friendly smile and asked them the same question again. Apparently not liking that they had ignored him the first time around.

Ichigo didn't bother dignifying the question with any type of response since Rukia all but tore into him herself, "How Ichi and I know one another is none of your business, Mr. Stark. I would kindly ask that you _not_ stick your nose where it isn't wanted."

Ichigo looked out the window for a moment as Mr. Stark gave a scathing reply to Rukia's own that all but had the heiress growling at him like a rabid animal before then shrieking, "You can't have her arrested, you asshole! Ichi was my plus one for the party. Just because she didn't show up with me or come dressed to your damn specifications doesn't give you any right to press charges against her for trespassing!" Ichigo twitched a little bit at the volume of Rukia's voice, but did little else in reaction to the argument going on.

"And another thing- I would fucking _dare_ you to piss me or Ichi off, you bastard. She only owns half the stocks in your fucking company. While I've invested millions in some of the rest. I may not be able to fucking ruin you- but she can if she's of a mind too. Besides I doubt that the board of directors would like knowing that you stupidly put her in jail on trumped up, bullshit charges all because of your goddamn ego!"

The shouting match stopped for a moment and she could feel Stark's eyes on her as he said in a slightly shocked tone. "Kurosaki-Shiba? Miss Kurosaki-Shiba, heiress to the Kurosaki-Shiba fortunes? You're shitting me. No one has ever seen her out in public. Hell, no one has even ever _met_ her! How the shit do the two of you know each other?"

"Didn't I already answer that question?" Rukia wondered aloud when Ichigo noticed something in a vehicle pulling up along side the limo and twitched so violently that she wound up accidentally elbowing Rukia in the ribs. The young woman yelped and looked at her oddly as she absently rubbed her the sore spot on her side.

"Ichi, what is it?" She asked when she caught the peculiar expression on her face.

"Call Kisuke and ask him where he is. No- ask him how far behind us he is. _Exact coordinates_." The tone that Ichigo used spoke volumes to Rukia who had been her friend and comrade in arms since her early teens and knew her well enough to understand that she didn't use the commander's tone outside of their work unless it was for a damned good reason.

Rukia wasted no time in dumping her clutch out and grabbing her small cell phone and calling Kisuke.

"He's ten cars behind us exactly. He says that he can see at least four vehicles closing in on us." Rukia said aloud. Ichigo made a weird feral, animal sound and slowly slipped off her leather jacket and handed it to Rukia and then turned to Tony and the others, all of whom were now on alert and going over a plan of action.

"Does, your driver know evasive maneuvers?"

"Yeah, yeah he does."

"Good, now would be the time to employ them before we wind up boxed in on all sides."

"Right." Tony said curtly before turning around and barking out some orders to the guy driving as the red headed woman said.

"You've been in situations like this before." It wasn't a question. But it got a laugh out of Rukia just the same.

"Oh man, she's got you pegged Ichi."

"Stop laughing and see if Kisuke can manage to get close enough to get a couple of weapons to us."

"Okay, okay-" Rukia said in amusement as she started texting instructions to Kisuke. "Done. I also texted instructions to Uryu and Orihime, and Chad and included out location. Chad is the closest and will be here in ten minutes. He says to make a little bit of a mess so he can find us."

"Good," Ichigo said grimly before asking. "Now, are you still packing?"

Rukia gave her a grin as she hiked her skirt up to her tighs and pulled out a hand held gun, some knives, and steel rods and laid them out on the seat between them. "The gun is fully loaded. The knives were made by Kisuke and can, you know-" She shrugged slightly. "Do stuff if you focus hard enough on what you want."

Ichigo picked up one of the knives and focused on it, watching as it lengthened, widened and took shape as it became as sharp as a razor's edge.

Someone stammered out, "Holy shit." While someone else let out an impressed whistle and asked, "Can I have some of those this year for Christmas?"

Letting the knife go back to it's original form, Ichigo smiled a little bit. "Kisuke still does good work."

"Just good? He'll cry if he hears that the quality is deemed lacking." Rukia said jokingly.

"I'll send him a gift basket to smooth things over then." Ichigo said as she put the handle of the knife in her mouth and took a moment to twist her hair up into a messy style and pin it in place with an ink pen that she found among Rukia's clutch contents.

"Mr. Stark, can these doors open while the vehicle is still moving?" Ichigo asked suddenly as she took a moment to shift her position a little bit so that she was couching on the floor, next to the seat, as close to the door as humanly possible.

"Yeah, they open. Why?" The billionaire asked in an wary tone.

Ichigo glanced at Rukia and motioned with her head for her to move over to the other seat. The petite woman rolled her eyes at her and muttered, "Yes, yes, I'm going. Gotta get the hell out of the way just in case."

Ichigo merely rolled her eyes good naturedly at Rukia's grumblings and waited for her to settle down as she crawled into the big blond guy's lap. He made a choking sound upon finding his lap occupied by the smaller woman as Rukia said dramatically, "Go. Make a mess. Express your rage. Make them beg for mercy."

Ichigo let out a breathy sounding laugh as she slowly opened the door just enough to slip out of the vehicle and swing herself up onto the trunk of the car and then disappeared.

Barely two minutes later the driver from one of the vehicles was savagely yanked out through the other vehicle's broken window, eliciting a loud, startled yelp from Happy as well as a jerk on the wheel that sent all of them crashing into the vehicle next to them.


End file.
